Fruit-basket



A NITED STATES CHARLES GROZAT CONVERSE, OF DUBUQUE, IOWA.

FRUIT-BASKET.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 413,97 dated August '30, 1864.

To wZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES CROZAT CON- VERSE, of Dubuque, in the county of Dubuque and State of Iowa, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fruit-Baskets; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of one style of my baskets in blank before being put together.

' Fig. 2 is an elevation of one example of my invention, showing its interior.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

My object is to produce a basket of such a character as can be readily procured in great numbers and at so slight a cost as to enable fruit-growers to save more of their crops than can be done with the present styles of fruit-baskets. The cheapest kinds of fruitbaskets known to me cost two cents and more each, and consequently the fruit-grower or market-man cannot afford to lose them, but requires their return to him for his future use. This manner of dealing entails annoyance upon the buyer, and requires the fruitgrower to be at much trouble and expense in getting his baskets back to his fields for future occasions. It is clear that this troublesome and expensive system is directly owing to the high price of the baskets in which the fruit is delivered. Many dealers use baskets of much greater cost than those I have mentioned, and my argument applies, of course,

with greater force to such.

I construct my basket of the style of paper called straw-board, or of other paper or material having the requisite stiffness, by stamping, punching, or otherwise cutting thereout a blank of the general form shown in Fig. 1.

The stamp or punch need not be described,

but it should have projections of the contour shown in red lines on the blank, in order to bruise or crease it on these lines, and it should also have blades so fixed in it as to cut the paper in lines 1 1 l and 2 2 2 and 5, as shown. Theblank having been so prepared, I draw together its straight edges A A, keeping the blank upon the table meanwhile, until they lap enough to bring the slits 2 2 011 the opposite edges one over the other, when I secure them by passing strips of refuse tin or strips of stiff paper, or Wooden or other pins, or thread, or any other convenient fastening, through the slits, and clamp the ends of the strips flat, either with the fingers or with pinchers. The edges of the bottom B will be also brought together and made to overlap by the act of drawing together the edges A A, and must be secured in like manner, and will take a conical form, as shown in Fig. 2, by reason of the joints formed on the red lines, where the grain of the paper is broken by the blow of the stamp or other device used for that purpose.

That part of the ribs 0 above the red line 4. will form the upright sides of the basket, while the part below that line will form the bottom of the basketup to the line 3, which will be the circumference of the base of the. cone B. WVhen I desire to make the cone B less prominent, I out a larger circle, D, from the part B of the blank; and if I desire to make the bottom of the basket nearly flat I cut out a still greater portion and press it down after the edges of the basket are secured together, or reduce the circumference of circle 3, or extend the ends at AA, where by I also reduce the size of the orifice at the center to proper dimensions.

The bottom or cone part of the blank B is The lines 1, cut in the blank, spread open I when the blank is set up, and they must be cut of such a length as that they shall not spread too wide, so as to endanger the loss of fruit. It will be seen that by reason of the cone I secure a means for ventilating the fruit in the center of the basket, while the open sides formed by the ribs 0 furnish ample ventilation from the outside.

I do not confine myself to the use of paper or' any other material. My basket being of one piece, the mutual pressure of the parts is such as to give the greatest strength to the whole, as well as consistency to the parts, so that the paper need not be so stiff as in other cases.

Having thus described my invention, I 2, Forming a fruit-basket out of asingle claim as new and desire to secure by Letters blank so as to give the center of its bottom a Patent conical shape, substantially as described.

1. The construction of a fruit-basket out of CHARLES OROZAT CONVERSE.

a single blank of any suitable material, in the \Vitnesses:

manner and for the purpose substantially as O. L. TOPLIFF,

described. M. M. LIVINGSTON. 

